Not all of my friends are readers. I mean; they can read but they don’t read, at least not beyond a little social media or football reports in The Metro.And that is no judgment, a number of them are among the most intelligent people I know, they just don’t do books. Whether it’s due to time, inclination, or some other reason, they don’t really know the feeling of immersion that great stories create in their readers.
They’ve never experienced that urgent need to read on and find out what happens next.For that reason, I knew there would be a group of people my story wouldn’t touch, even though they know how important the Twisted 50 initiative is to me. They may read it, but they wouldn’t really appreciate it. The audiobook has changed all that.Much like a script is only an element of a completed film, I feel that my words are only a part of what my story has become.Before I listened to the audiobook for the first time I was concerned that it wouldn’t translate effectively. Much of my work was an internal monologue from a guy recounting earlier events as part of his realisation process, and there were also three different characters for one voice artist to convey effectively. There was much that I thought could go wrong, but I hadn’t reckoned with the quality of the man behind the ‘mike’.
As soon as I’d finished listening, I googled Mike Rogers and found his website. Leafing through dozens of acting, directing and voice credits I began to realise just what an eminent professional he was and I felt quite humbled that he had agreed to give his time to read my story.
I emailed him and thanked him, we exchanged a few notes and I began to feel as if I was actually more than just some bloke who had written a short story. The full recording is so good that I could honestly imagine listening to it on Radio 4, and that’s very little to do with the words and everything to do with Mike’s excellence.
Which brings me to another reason why the audiobook is so important. As well as making my story much more accessible, it has also made it more credible. I’m sure that some people won’t appreciate the effort that goes into producing an anthology like Twisted 50, thinking things like ‘with Amazon anyone can get published these days.’
But a professional audiobook is something else, it really demonstrates how serious the team behind Twisted are, elevating the project to another level. Having something of this quality in my portfolio brings me that much closer to believing I could actually make it as a professional writer. It also gives me one more serious piece of armoury to turn an agent’s head, the next time I have something to promote.
In short, the audiobook is an incredibly valuable addition to the Twisted 50 experience, and one that I never expected when I entered my story for consideration. It really shows the value of artistic collaboration and gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from me!
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